ACCA vs CA: Which is better for your career?

To be able to make the right choice, you must first know about each course and then study its pros and cons. So, let’s do a deep dive…

What is the ACCA Course?

ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) is a course recognized worldwide with over 200K+ members and 600K+ students across 180+ countries. In other words, ACCA is acknowledged as the largest professional accounting qualification across 92% of the globe. Amongst all these countries, you have the signing authority in 90+ countries including the UK, Dubai, UAE, New Zealand, Australia etc.

Additionally, the ACCA body has partnered with 7400 approved employers and 80 accountancy firms globally.

What is the CA Course?

CA or Chartered Accountancy is a professional certification course conducted by the ICAI (Institute of Chartered Accountants of India) that trains you on taxation, accounting, auditing, financial assessment, strategy and budgeting, for an individual, business or organization. After you become a qualified CA, you can work as a financial consultant, auditor, financial manager, and more.

Unlike ACCA professionals, a qualified CA has exclusive signing authority in India.

Comparing the syllabus: ACCA vs. CA

With an overview of each course, first, let’s know about the syllabus of each course. This can be an important factor in your decision-making process but interestingly there is a strong overlap between the two courses. The common subjects are:

• Accounting
• Financial Management
• Costing (referred to as Performance Management in ACCA)
• Audit & Assurance

The subject, however, that strongly distinguishes the two courses is taxation. As a CA, you work only with the Indian Tax system while ACCA professionals work with the taxation of countries like the UK, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong etc.

The ACCA syllabus contains 14 papers, 9 at the Fundamental level and the remaining 5 at the Professional level. The CA syllabus is spread across 20 papers: 4 at the Foundation, 8 at the IPCC, and 8 at the Final level.

Next, let’s examine the difference in terms of the exam structure. This is very crucial since cracking an exam finally defines your career trajectory. So, here we go…

1. Group System:

ICAI mandates you to appear for your exams in groups at all three Foundation, IPCC, and Final CA levels. Most of these levels are split into two groups – Group 1 and Group 2, each containing four papers.ACCA, on the contrary, offers you the flexibility to decide how many exams you want to appear for. You can go for one exam or four exams at a time, it’s up to you.

2. Aggregate System:

The good news for ACCA aspirants is that when you appear for a bunch of exams if you fail in any of them, you reappear only for that paper. This means you pass the remaining onesIn CA, however, if you flunk one paper even by 1 mark, you must appear for the entire group all over again. This makes it difficult to ace the CA exam.

3. ACCA vs CA - Exam Frequency:

Another factor that raises the difficulty level of the CA degree is that the qualifying exam happens only twice a year – May and November. Instead, the ACCA exam is held every quarter – March, June, September, and December. So, you have more attempts to clear the ACCA exam within a period of one year.

4. Exemptions:

Here’s one more strong factor in favour of ACCA. If you attempt the ACCA exam after completing your Graduation, you enjoy 4 exemptions from 13 ACCA exams. In case you are a Graduate and cleared the IPCC level, you have the benefit of 6 exemptions from 13 ACCA exams. Finally, as a qualified CA, if you attempt the ACCA exam, you receive the benefit of 9 exemptions from 13 ACCA exams.

Conversely, you do not get any exemptions if you attempt the CA exam as a qualified ACCA.Therefore, the exam structure of the two courses proves that it is easier to qualify for the ACCA exam compared to the CA. Interestingly, however, one point favouring CA aspirants is the fee structure.

ACCA vs CA: Exam Fees

The cost of completing the CPA course averages around INR 2-2.5 lakhs. In comparison, the ACCA course costs you around INR 3.5-4.5 lakhs depending on the prevailing GBP rate and the exemptions you earn.

Let’s now inspect the difference between CA and ACCA in terms of Internship.

ACCA vs CA: Internship:

If you are a CA aspirant, you can opt for the 3-year internship or Articleship after clearing the IPCC Group 1 exam. Also, you can take the Final exam only after completing the Articleship, compulsorily with a CA firm.

ACCA, on the other hand, offers a flexible approach. You can intern anytime – before, after, or during your exams. Moreover, working with a CA firm is optional, not obligatory. You just complete the Performance Objectives and Ethics Module after 3 years to gain a holistic experience.

ACCA vs CA: Duration

ACCA students take 2-3 years to clear the exam and a total of 3-4 years to qualify after completing the internship.The average time taken by CA students to clear all the groups is nearly 6-8 years. Even those clearing all the exams on the first attempt take at least 5 years to qualify.

In other words, it takes more time to qualify as a CA compared to ACCA.

The next question arises on the career prospect of the two courses.

ACCA vs. CA: Where can you apply?

Since CAs specialize only in Indian taxation, they are hired by companies within the country. ACCAs, in contrast, are hired primarily by MNCs such as the Big 4 (KPMG, Deloitte, EY, PwC) JP Morgan, BNP Paribas, Standard Chartered etc.

Now it’s time to seek the answer to the most important question: ACCA vs. CA – which is better in terms of salary?

ACCA vs. CA: Salary

Industry data shows that Indian companies prefer to hire CAs and offer them an initial salary of around INR 8 lakhs per annum. A qualified ACCA, however, draws a starting annual salary of around INR 5.7 lakhs.

After a comparative analysis of the two courses, it is time for you to decide.

ACCA vs CA which is better

Considering the various factors discussed thus far, ACCA emerges as a better career choice with access to global job opportunities, making you effectively a global CA.

However, be mindful of the fact that when you are seeking an answer to the question - ACCA vs CA which is better, CA is undoubtedly a better choice if you prefer to work in India. But, at the same time, you must be willing to invest more time and effort in clearing the CA exam, as explained earlier. ACCA, on the contrary, must be your choice when you want to build a career in MNCs.

But before you make up your mind in favour of ACCA, just step back and ask yourself the final question…

Is ACCA worth it?

Well, ACCA is worthwhile when you are committed to building a career in accounting and want to possess an advanced level of knowledge and skill in this domain. This commitment sets you apart from other accountants and, hence, offers you a rich bouquet of lucrative job opportunities across the world.

Wrapping up

Finally, you have all the answers to your question, ACCA vs CA which is better. Interestingly, you can even pursue ACCA after you have cleared the Final or even the IPCC levels of the CA exam. As a result, you can be a Chartered Accountant practising both Indian and international taxation to further widen your scope of job opportunities.

So, go ahead, and get started to launch your career and fulfil your aspirations.